Cowan, R., Swearer, S., & Sheridan, S. (2004). Home-school collaboration.

Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology , 2, 201-208.

Purpose of Study:
• To review home-school collaboration. It includes a background and history, factors that
influence collaboration, and approaches to fostering and maintaining home-school collaboration.
Methods Employed:
o Evaluation of the literature
Conclusions:
Home-school collaboration is influenced by educational legislation, family characteristics, school-
based variables, and community-related influences.

Suggest that home and school operate from a guiding philosophy of partnership. The authors
suggest that 4 specific components are needed to build partnerships: approach, attitudes,
atmosphere, and actions.

Conclusions
As a future school psychologist whose role involves working with parents and schools to develop
successful relationships, this article has had a huge impact. This article has affirmed for me the
importance of partnerships. The guiding philosophy of partnerships is the focus and it entails
developing relationships that involve coequal power and coequal participation. In the future when I
work with parents and schools to develop partnerships, it will be important for me teach them how
to share resources, ideas, decision-making power, and ownership for the mutual goal of child
success. In order to promote meaningful and effective educational and developmental outcomes, it
will be important for parents to be involved. I can support both home and school with working
together in these partnerships. As part of this partnership philosophy, we will need to take the
approach that values parental input. We will need to communicate our support for parents so that
their children can be successful at home. An attitude of joint responsibility and a focus on strengths
will also need to be adopted. An atmosphere that is supportive for both families and schools will
need to be developed. Lastly, actions that are not merely activities will need to be employed. This
means that families are actively involved on a regular basis. All of this information is critical for
my success as a school psychologist: teacher, learner, systems change agent, and advocate.